Unallied Foes
by Crazy Angelic Devil
Summary: About Miache and Zefrem (remember Lioness Rampant) and their efforts with the Dominion Jewel to save Tyra.
1. Chapter 1

CHAPTER 1  
  
The rich man walked down the street, strutting and puffing his chest out. He didn't notice a slight girl with white-blonde hair and tanned skin reach into his pocket and pull his purse out. He didn't realize until a few minutes later, but by then it was too late. The thief was far, far away.  
  
Miache ran into a deserted alley, panting heavily. She was a waterfront thief, and made her living stealing purses from passengers coming off ships docked in Carthaki Port. Not much money was ever made, only enough to buy food and pay for the rent of the room, which she and her friend Aiora shared.  
  
Miache's mother had died giving birth to her, which her father often blamed her for. Then at the age of 10, her father had jumped off a bridge and drowned, leaving her alone in the world. She had lived on the streets until she found that she had a talent for picking pockets, a sill which would eventually earn her enough money to rent a room. At the age of 16, she had befriended another thief named Aiora, and they divided the rent and food cost equally between them. Miache worked in the morning stealing, while Aiora was a nighttime thief.  
  
Miache took out the purse that she had hidden in her sleeve and shook out its contents into her hand. She counted the coins and a gasp issued from her mouth. She counted the coins again, this time more slowly, and grinned. In her hand she held 200 gold slacks (AN. I'm making up a lot of Carthaki stuff, including the currency.), which was enough to keep a merchant in luxury for weeks and a peasant in luxury for months. Miache stuffed the coins back into the leather bag and looked around the empty alley and at the roofs shading it, making sure no one had seen the large pile of gold in her hand. Then she placed the purse into her knee-length boots and climbed up a drainage pipe.  
  
On the roof, she scanned the streets for the entrance to her rented room, which was located at an inn called the Angry Bull. Spotting the familiar black bull placed before the doorway, Miache leapt across shingles until she reached the overhang above the inn. She jumped off the roof and landed 2 metres below, next to a surprised merchant selling his wares.  
  
The usual loud shouting of the pub greeted her as she entered the inn and went to the bar counter. A grey-haired man was rushing between customers at the counter and the bottles of alcohol sitting on the back wall, sweating heavily. She waited until most of the customers had gone and shouted out, " Hey, Alahr," to the bar tender. He looked up and hurried towards her while wiping the perspiration from his forehead. "Well, well. If it ain't the thief. What'll it be t'day? Or are yeh in the mood for somethin' stronger?  
  
Miache laughed. "Jus' lemonade wiv ice, Alahr. Yeh know I hate liquor." Alahr went to the back and grabbed two glasses from the upside-down stack. He pulled out a bottle hidden behind the others and filled both glasses, then added ice and came to the front. Miache pulled out a few silver coins and handed them to him, then took the glasses and walked up the steps leading to the rented rooms.  
  
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Aiora was sleeping. Miache slowly opened the door and quietly walked over to the table at the center of the room. She placed one glass on the table and sat down, sculling the one in her hand down in a few gulps. Miache placed the glass on the table and muttered to herself, "He added brandy! I'm gonna kill 'em nex' time I see 'em." Just then Aiora rolled over and off the bed, landing on the wooden floor with a loud thump. Loud groans came from the floor and a sleepy face came up from behind the bed.  
  
" Third time this week!" Aiora moaned, standing up and rubbing her back. "I swear, soon you're gonna hafta put bars 'round this bed and turn it into a baby's crib!" Miache laughed. Her friend had a habit of rolling off the bed just before she was about to wake up, and often spent the next ten minutes rubbing her sore back.  
  
"Aren't you used to it yet Aiora? Haven't you been doin' it for all your life?" Miache asked. Aiora groaned in reply. "Anyways, come here and drink the lemonade. There's somethin' I wanna show you."  
  
Aiora came over and sipped her lemonade while Miache took her boots off and extracted the purse from her right one. She handed the bag to Aiora and watched as she counted the coins. Aiora looked at the massive pile of gold, bit one, then jumped up and screamed.  
  
" Hey, hey, watch it! Some of us have ears 'round here yeh know!" Miache growled as she covered her ears with her palms.  
  
"Sorry," said Aiora, but she didn't sound at all apologetic. "But.. look! We could buy good clothes! Good food!"  
  
"Yeah," Miache smiled. Aiora's excitement was catching. "We'll talk about it t'morrow. Get some more sleep afore the sun sets."  
  
Aiora looked at the sun low in the sky and sighed. "Ok. But you're not gonna run off with the money!" She went to her bed and pulled the blankets up to her neck. In a few seconds she was asleep.  
  
Miache smiled. Her friend was so easy to please. She took the purse and emptied it of its load again, sitting on the windowsill. She looked into the purse to find any straggler coins and saw a glint of white. Miache pulled at it and a piece of paper came into her hands. A piece of paper with words written across its surface. She stared at the note and tried to piece out the letters.  
  
"K-i-that's an l-and anotha l-kill!" Excited, she glanced at the other words. "T-h-e-the-k-king-after-r-e-t-r-i-retrieving-the-d-o-m-i-n-i-o-n- Dominion-j-e-w-e-l. Kill the king afta retrievin' the Dominion Jewel! What does that mean?" She sat there, wondering.  
  
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Disclaimer: THIS IS THE ONLY TIME I'M PASTING THIS UP SO PAY ATTENTION! I only own the characters that you haven't heard about before. The others are from Tamora Pierce's imagination, though I may have expanded their personality a bit.  
  
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	2. Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2  
  
A loud bang at the door startled Miache from her thoughts. Instinctively she cowered on the sill and drew the heavy curtain around her body, instead of going to answer the door. The choice was a good one as she heard a loud slam, seemingly in her room. Miache peeked through a gap in the curtains and trembled. There stood 5 large bodyguards dressed, not in Carthaki colours, but in bronze and dark green. Beside them there was an old, chubby man, who Miache recognized as the owner of the purse that she now held in her hand. He sneered as one of the soldiers placed a hand over Aiora's mouth to stifle her screams as she woke up from her nap. The short man walked over to her bed and laughed at her.  
  
'Well, well, well. I expected you to be a merchant, a man, and a big one at that, but it seems that you are but a peasant girl. Oh well, it will make the job more easier for the men. You see," he said with malice, as Aiora's head shook from side to side. Miache longed to run to her friend and fight off the guards, but she knew that there was no hope for her against 5 men, each twice the height of her and each carrying a longsword and a silver dagger. She could only sit there and watch in horror.  
  
"You see," repeated the rich man, looking at Aiora like he wished she were a bug he could squash under his foot. "The purse which you stole, it has an important piece of paper in it. A notice, which is for my eyes, and my eyes alone. WHERE IS MY PURSE!!" he suddenly screamed, causing Miache to flinch behind the curtain. She hoped no one had seen the movement.  
  
Aiora was still shaking her head from side to side. The fat man laughed.  
  
"Well, still refusing, are we? Then let's let my soldier have some fun with you and see what you say at the end of that, shall we?"  
  
Miache shuddered, knowing what was going to happen next. She closed her eyes and heard pants unzip, a rough tearing off of clothes, probably Aiora's, her muffled screams for help and the wooden boards of the bed groaning. She shuddered again. For her best friend to be raped, while she herself was only a few metres away, was just too much.  
  
Miache peeked through the curtains and saw a guard straddling Aiora, one hand on her arms and one hand on her mouth. Aiora looked around the room with terrified eyes. She glanced at the window and seemed to see Miache hiding there. She winked at her hidden friend and with one quick burst of energy wrenched her arms free of the man's hold, pulled the dagger out of the scabbard at his waist and plunged it into his stomach.  
  
The guard seemed too surprised to do anything. He simply choked, clutched his neck, and rolled off the bed. Aiora's neck was in an instant surrounded by 4 large, sharp swords.  
  
The fat man smiled. "I had hoped that you would be a little bit more co- operative. However, I do not think that you will give us any information. Guards, kill her."  
  
Swords went in and out of Aiora's neck in an instant. She collapsed onto the bed, obviously dead. Miache had seen death before, of course, but had never seen anyone close to her murdered. She wept silently behind the curtain.  
  
The rich man called out to his men, "Let's leave now, before someone finds out." The group of men left the room. Miache, blinded by tears, didn't notice a few of the guards hiding under the bed and behind the door.  
  
She crept slowly out of her hiding place and went to Aiora's bed. Aiora lay peacefully on the bed, as if she was asleep. Miache whispered, "Why did they do this to you?" She heard the swish of fabric and leapt around, but it was too late. Three men holding swords to her neck surrounded the bed.  
  
Miache heard the door open, and saw the fat man and one guard walk in. The rich man laughed. "Well, well. What have we here?"  
  
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6-2 opal- Thanks for the review. Keep checking for more chapters!  
  
Dreamer9981- Thanks for your advice. I've changed Chapter 1 a bit, so the peasant's accents aren't so heavy. Keep r/r!  
  
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	3. Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3  
  
Miache struggled against the rope that the guards had used to tie her to her bed. She knew it was hopeless, but anything was better than sitting there and doing nothing.  
  
Cheko (the fat man's name) took the note from the sill, read it, smirked, and turned to Miache. "Ah, politics," he said dreamily to the prisoner. "It's so confusing, isn't it?" Miache mumbled something under the handkerchief tied over her mouth.  
  
"What are you trying to say," he asked. Cheko removed the handkerchief and Miache spat in his face. He slapped her cheek and she winced, letting her head drop.  
  
"Do not try to do that again!" Cheko growled at her. Miache kept her eyes to the ground, hoping that he would kill her painlessly like Aiora, and not torture her. She was surprised when she heard his next words.  
  
"I have a proposition for you thief," Cheko spat out the words, like it pained him to say them. Miache raised her head. Perhaps she wouldn't be killed after all. "I am representing a group in Galla. They want me to find someone who can go into the palace and steal the Dominion Jewel from their king. How about it? You steal the jewel, and then we will set you free."  
  
Miache knew that Cheko would kill her as soon as she handed over the Jewel, but realized that the palace wound be the perfect place to slip away from him. After all, palaces were big places. She nodded her head, trying to look meek and obedient.  
  
"Very well then." Cheko looked happy and rubbed his hands together. He whispered something to a guard standing beside him, but Miache never worked out what he said; as just at that moment, a hand clapped over her nose and she inhaled a sharp-smelling liquid that immediately sent her off into a deep sleep.  
  
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The journey from Carthak to Galla across the sea wasn't fun. While she was unconscious, they had loaded her into a small compartment in a ship. It was dark all the time, except when a guard came and pushed food and water through a slot, once a day. Her legs were chained together; luckily her hands weren't.  
  
On the first day, she had tried shouting for help, but all she received for her sore throat was no food. So Miache spent most of the day thinking of what she had gotten herself into and regretting it.  
  
After maybe a week, Miache was just about ready to starve herself rather than eating the soggy vegetables again. However, on that day, the door was opened and Miache's eyes shut in pain; the sunshine was too bright for someone who had spent 8 days in total darkness.  
  
A guard dragged her out of the shed and another pulled her hands together and chained them behind her back. Miache lay collapsed on the deck while they did this, still getting used to being outside again. A voice spoke menacingly from above her head.  
  
"Get up." The voice belonged to Cheko, and as he said it a guard pulled her roughly to her feet. Miache found she could stand, and faced Cheko with her eyes still closed. A hand slapped her cheek and she winced.  
  
"Open you eyes, now!" Cheko growled. Miache slowly opened her eyes and looked around. She was on a cargo ship, an expensive one, and it was docked in a harbour. Miache assumed it was Galla. A sword scabbard poked her in the back and she shuffled forward, following Cheko and the two guards in front of her.  
  
As she walked slowly down the gangplank stretching between ship and land, Miache looked around at Galla. It was a lot like the harbour of Carthak, except for the fact that everyone was speaking a different language, and also everyone on land wore warmer clothes. She found herself shivering in her cotton tunic and breeches; Galla was going to be a lot colder than her birthplace.  
  
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End file.
